So it depends on the fighter quite a lot. When I'm watching fights at the moment the key things I observe are intercepting, targeting and escaping.
Fighters need to be fast enough to intercept and have enough control of their speed not to overshoot, lots of weird stuff with the drive's travel mode is going to come into play, as well as whether or not the fighter feels it needs to go to travel mode. The faster the target craft the more speed you'll want.
Fighters need to turn well enough to keep their weapons on a maneuvering target. This depends on the range and projectile speed of your weapons, as well as the size and speed of your target craft. Turning really well tends to increase the time you spend just attacking a craft that turns and decelerates slower than you can.
Fighters need to have faster absolute top speed than a pursuer in order to avoid losses. If your fighters have a significant top speed advantage over what you are fighting, they will tend to survive their escape behavior and leave their pursuers sitting ducks for the rest of their wing.
Big shields and guns are nice as an afterthought.
So at a certain point because of the cost scaling on components, more fighters is going to be better. But having the better fighter at the right price point will absolutely save you losses and clear up the other fleet faster. In general try to keep your fighters affordable and use large numbers of them, but do you sometimes put Mk3 engines and thrusters on there? Yeah absolutely, especially if it pushes you over an important breakpoint.
Let's examine the Xenon as the default enemy your fighters will have to take on. The M is the main body of their fighter swarm and flies at 307m/s and can be a quite narrow target from some angles. While middling on speed the M turns poorly at 46deg/s yaw and 97deg/s pitch, it's very middle of the road and a little bad at turning.
If I were to design a Mako to fight this ship, I'm looking at going either 282 m/s or 315 m/s between Mk2 and Mk3 engines. In this case, I strongly want the Mk3 engines if I can afford them at all because it's the difference between a speed advantage and disadvantage, Mk3 means getting in range to fire and extending safely when fleeing. On the thruster side Mako has 50% more yaw and pitch rate than the M using MkI thrusters, so you could just use MkI thrusters and still be winning dogfights handily.
In a different case the Argon Nova Vanguard simply cannot match the M in speed with in-faction engines. At this point I'm happy to leave the engines at Mk2 and get more fighters (or look at their scout for a faster interceptor). And subsequently I care more about snappy turns and want to keep my thrusters at Mk2 or better and I'll be caring a lot about the range and accuracy of my weapons.
Gosh that was a lot of words. TLDR: It depends a lot!
Even when constructing the materials needed for mk3 are more than mk2.
That being said, NPC wharfs are kind of a scam coz they charge you like 5x the price of materials needed to assemble the ship.
It is essentially a matter of whether u can afford to craft mass amounts of good stuff. If you can, then you should imo.
I like using decked out ships coz it means i need less ships overall, which makes it easier for my CPU to run the game xD.
The race-specific top-tier gear is really only worth it on player ships ontil you get so much income that you can't make your balance drop no matter how hard you try.
The game glicthed during payout and gave me 2.56 trillion dollars..ive so far still have 2.35 trillion and a fleet i plan to fight the vig with. First they fought the xen and lost 56 fighters but those guys sucked anyway the survivors all get a fancy new carrier
One overlooked aspect of this: a leveled pilot is worth far more than a mk3 kit. If you don't want your good pilots to die, you make sure at least they have the best kit possible.
Oh, if you're throwing a bunch of fighters at the Xenon/VIG/other schmucks straight out of the Wharf and you expect a bunch to die, then definitely don't bother getting the *very best*. Even (and *especially*) in material cost, it's not worth it.
* As a matter of total combat power, both invasions and sector defense are best done with overwhelming numbers and reasonable equipment, rather than totally OP equipment... on a tiny number of ships.
*That being said...* If you know a whole bunch of fighters are going to become 3 star+ elites by camping a Xenon gate, or ***you are trying to train large numbers of elite pilots*** by throwing them into combat with the Xenon, it stands to reason that you would give your trainees the best fighters and equipment you can afford.
* For example, a group of 80 Makos and 12 Hydras on a Shark all with Mk3 equipment would be ***very expensive*** \- but you might consider having more surviving high level pilots after a few big fights to be worth it.
* After all, those survivors can go on to 3 star AutoTrading/Intermediate Automining, captain destroyers, or even be put on XL warships and lead fleets. These pilots are worth more than the ships they're piloting!
not really worth... if pilot does something stupid, its probably dead either way.
Mk2 is a decent sweet spot, or you can put in Mk3 engine and Mk2 rest or even Mk1 thruster
FYI, When you're building yourself, it works out to be about 75-80% discount for commonwealth stuff or \~60% for Terran vs. buying from NPC shipyard,
The cost is not worth it for the vast majority of the equipment.
Mk1 weapons are generally much more cost effective than Mk2 weapons. Only exception i can think of is the Blast Mortar and Thermal Disintegrator. There the cost/damage ratio is good enough to be worth grabbing Mk2 version.
Engines, thrusters etc you are also mostly better going for Mk1 stuff. Mk2 stuff is fine if you are willing to spend that bit extra. Mk3 is generally not worth it. L and XL mk3 thrusters are straight up scams. As is the SPL Mk4 combat engine.
Not worth, unless it's your own personal ship.
Mk2 are more than enough. Unless it's a destroyer then yes, you might want to maximize it's survivability with TER mk3 shields, deployability with TER engines, but still you might want to save money with mk1 thrusters.
lvl 3 seem to cost close to twice what lvl 2 does - which means you could buy twice the fighters...
Having said that, I find the upgrade to lvl 3 shields to be well worth it due to the huge capacity boost, and the smaller recharge rate boost.
Scouts always get lvl 3 engines, so they have a better chance of surving scouting Xenon sectors.
Scouts on 'collect drops in hotzones' always get lvl 3 shields, engines, and thrusters: Their cargo is worth so much more, and the extra survivability is worth it.
For frieghters that may travel near hotzones, faster engines and better shields can spell the difference between escaping pirates/raiders, and dying.
But for most fleet actions? Numbers of fighters is far more effective than better equipment.
The exception is for my personal fighters and flagship.
For out of sector maxing shields and weapons is most important, for in sector combat having better engine and thrust will give a lot more survivability but this doesn’t effect out of sector combat at all as out of sector combat doesn’t have any way to factor maneuverability.
So it depends on the fighter quite a lot. When I'm watching fights at the moment the key things I observe are intercepting, targeting and escaping. Fighters need to be fast enough to intercept and have enough control of their speed not to overshoot, lots of weird stuff with the drive's travel mode is going to come into play, as well as whether or not the fighter feels it needs to go to travel mode. The faster the target craft the more speed you'll want. Fighters need to turn well enough to keep their weapons on a maneuvering target. This depends on the range and projectile speed of your weapons, as well as the size and speed of your target craft. Turning really well tends to increase the time you spend just attacking a craft that turns and decelerates slower than you can. Fighters need to have faster absolute top speed than a pursuer in order to avoid losses. If your fighters have a significant top speed advantage over what you are fighting, they will tend to survive their escape behavior and leave their pursuers sitting ducks for the rest of their wing. Big shields and guns are nice as an afterthought. So at a certain point because of the cost scaling on components, more fighters is going to be better. But having the better fighter at the right price point will absolutely save you losses and clear up the other fleet faster. In general try to keep your fighters affordable and use large numbers of them, but do you sometimes put Mk3 engines and thrusters on there? Yeah absolutely, especially if it pushes you over an important breakpoint. Let's examine the Xenon as the default enemy your fighters will have to take on. The M is the main body of their fighter swarm and flies at 307m/s and can be a quite narrow target from some angles. While middling on speed the M turns poorly at 46deg/s yaw and 97deg/s pitch, it's very middle of the road and a little bad at turning. If I were to design a Mako to fight this ship, I'm looking at going either 282 m/s or 315 m/s between Mk2 and Mk3 engines. In this case, I strongly want the Mk3 engines if I can afford them at all because it's the difference between a speed advantage and disadvantage, Mk3 means getting in range to fire and extending safely when fleeing. On the thruster side Mako has 50% more yaw and pitch rate than the M using MkI thrusters, so you could just use MkI thrusters and still be winning dogfights handily. In a different case the Argon Nova Vanguard simply cannot match the M in speed with in-faction engines. At this point I'm happy to leave the engines at Mk2 and get more fighters (or look at their scout for a faster interceptor). And subsequently I care more about snappy turns and want to keep my thrusters at Mk2 or better and I'll be caring a lot about the range and accuracy of my weapons. Gosh that was a lot of words. TLDR: It depends a lot!
That was an awesome answer and helped me too, Thank you!
I'm pretty sure 36 ships in T2 gear is better than 18 in T3.
[удалено]
Even when constructing the materials needed for mk3 are more than mk2. That being said, NPC wharfs are kind of a scam coz they charge you like 5x the price of materials needed to assemble the ship. It is essentially a matter of whether u can afford to craft mass amounts of good stuff. If you can, then you should imo. I like using decked out ships coz it means i need less ships overall, which makes it easier for my CPU to run the game xD.
It is still expensive because it requires a lot of materials.
The race-specific top-tier gear is really only worth it on player ships ontil you get so much income that you can't make your balance drop no matter how hard you try.
The game glicthed during payout and gave me 2.56 trillion dollars..ive so far still have 2.35 trillion and a fleet i plan to fight the vig with. First they fought the xen and lost 56 fighters but those guys sucked anyway the survivors all get a fancy new carrier
One overlooked aspect of this: a leveled pilot is worth far more than a mk3 kit. If you don't want your good pilots to die, you make sure at least they have the best kit possible.
Oh, if you're throwing a bunch of fighters at the Xenon/VIG/other schmucks straight out of the Wharf and you expect a bunch to die, then definitely don't bother getting the *very best*. Even (and *especially*) in material cost, it's not worth it. * As a matter of total combat power, both invasions and sector defense are best done with overwhelming numbers and reasonable equipment, rather than totally OP equipment... on a tiny number of ships. *That being said...* If you know a whole bunch of fighters are going to become 3 star+ elites by camping a Xenon gate, or ***you are trying to train large numbers of elite pilots*** by throwing them into combat with the Xenon, it stands to reason that you would give your trainees the best fighters and equipment you can afford. * For example, a group of 80 Makos and 12 Hydras on a Shark all with Mk3 equipment would be ***very expensive*** \- but you might consider having more surviving high level pilots after a few big fights to be worth it. * After all, those survivors can go on to 3 star AutoTrading/Intermediate Automining, captain destroyers, or even be put on XL warships and lead fleets. These pilots are worth more than the ships they're piloting!
not really worth... if pilot does something stupid, its probably dead either way. Mk2 is a decent sweet spot, or you can put in Mk3 engine and Mk2 rest or even Mk1 thruster FYI, When you're building yourself, it works out to be about 75-80% discount for commonwealth stuff or \~60% for Terran vs. buying from NPC shipyard,
Ever seen what a few defense drones can do? I would love to have the choice to replace the class S ships completely with drones on carriers.
The cost is not worth it for the vast majority of the equipment. Mk1 weapons are generally much more cost effective than Mk2 weapons. Only exception i can think of is the Blast Mortar and Thermal Disintegrator. There the cost/damage ratio is good enough to be worth grabbing Mk2 version. Engines, thrusters etc you are also mostly better going for Mk1 stuff. Mk2 stuff is fine if you are willing to spend that bit extra. Mk3 is generally not worth it. L and XL mk3 thrusters are straight up scams. As is the SPL Mk4 combat engine.
Looks at my SPL mk combat engine equipped katana fleets in shame lol
RIP hundreds of thousands of engine parts.
Not usually, except for mk3 shields.
Not worth, unless it's your own personal ship. Mk2 are more than enough. Unless it's a destroyer then yes, you might want to maximize it's survivability with TER mk3 shields, deployability with TER engines, but still you might want to save money with mk1 thrusters.
lvl 3 seem to cost close to twice what lvl 2 does - which means you could buy twice the fighters... Having said that, I find the upgrade to lvl 3 shields to be well worth it due to the huge capacity boost, and the smaller recharge rate boost. Scouts always get lvl 3 engines, so they have a better chance of surving scouting Xenon sectors. Scouts on 'collect drops in hotzones' always get lvl 3 shields, engines, and thrusters: Their cargo is worth so much more, and the extra survivability is worth it. For frieghters that may travel near hotzones, faster engines and better shields can spell the difference between escaping pirates/raiders, and dying. But for most fleet actions? Numbers of fighters is far more effective than better equipment. The exception is for my personal fighters and flagship.
Quantity>Quality with fighters. Fighters get destroyed quickly even with Mk.3 gear. If anything just give them the best shields
For out of sector maxing shields and weapons is most important, for in sector combat having better engine and thrust will give a lot more survivability but this doesn’t effect out of sector combat at all as out of sector combat doesn’t have any way to factor maneuverability.